Compact, efficient, and low-cost laser sources in the visible and ultraviolet spectral regions have long been desired for a variety of applications. These applications include laser-based projection displays, optical storage, bio-analytical instrumentation, semiconductor inspection and spectroscopy. Semiconductor lasers, which provide a low-cost, compact, and efficient platform, rely on material systems such as InGa(AI)P that lase most efficiently in the near-infrared spectral region. Efficient operation down to ˜650 nm (red color) can be achieved without serious technological challenges and some semiconductor laser designs can be extended down to ˜635 nm with however decreasing efficiency and reliability. On the shorter wavelength side of the visible region, GaN systems have been developed in recent years and lasers in the violet (˜400 nm to ˜445 nm) spectral range have been commercialized. However, achieving wavelengths >470 nm in an efficient and reliable way represents a nearly insurmountable challenge. Thus, the majority of the visible spectrum (i.e., from ˜470 nm blue to ˜635 nm red) does not currently have an efficient semiconductor laser solution.
Of these colors (wavelengths), the absence of green is perhaps the most notable since this color corresponds to the peak sensitivity of the human eye. Indeed, no direct solution for a green semiconductor laser is currently available. The indirect solution, commercialized since the 1990s, has been based on nonlinear frequency doubling (also known as second-harmonic generation, or SHG) of neodymium (Nd)-based solid-state lasers, such as Nd:Y3Al5O12 (Nd:YAG) or Nd:YVO4. These solid-state gain materials can be pumped by infrared semiconductor lasers (e.g., at ˜808 nm) and produce laser radiation at ˜1064 nm wavelength. This 1064 nm radiation can then be frequency doubled into the green 532 nm wavelength using nonlinear crystals such as Potassium Titan Phosphate (KTP) or Lithium Borate (LBO). A similar technique can be used to obtain the blue color, e.g. 473 nm by frequency-doubling a 946 nm solid-state laser. A review of such approaches can be found in the book by W. P. Risk, T. R. Gosnell and A. V. Nurmikko, “Compact Blue-Green Lasers”, Cambridge University Press (2003). Furthermore, the low-cost platform can be achieved by using so-called microchip technology, where the gain chip and non-linear crystal are bonded to form a monolithic laser cavity. The microchip concept was apparently first proposed by Mooradian (U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,539).
However, the currently available microchip lasers lack the efficiency and flexibility required in many applications, especially at higher power levels, e.g. from several hundred milliwatts up to several Watts. This is mainly due to the frequency conversion inefficiency of conventional nonlinear materials such as KTP. In order to obtain hundreds of milliwatts of green color from a KTP-based microchip laser, one has to provide a significant power margin for the fundamental infrared laser, which imposes thermal, size, and cost limitations on the overall laser system design. Furthermore, traditional bulk nonlinear materials such as KTP are restricted as to their scope of frequency conversion. For example, KTP is used for frequency doubling into the green color but cannot be practically used for frequency doubling into the blue color, so one has to search for different nonlinear materials with their own limitations in efficiency, reliability, and cost.
Laurel (U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,711), proposed that many of such limitations can be overcome by the use of periodically poled nonlinear crystals. These crystals can be engineered to provide high nonlinearity for the desired conversion wavelength. Therefore, such a laser design implemented in a microchip architecture, could address many of the restrictions associated with conventional bulk nonlinear materials.
However, embodiments of that invention suffer from serious limitations, which, to our knowledge, have prevented commercialization of this platform, and, to this day, visible wavelength microchip lasers continue to rely on bulk nonlinear materials such as KTP and KNbO3, the latter material being used to produce the blue color (see, e.g., World Patent Application WO2005/036,703). The origin of such limitations lies in the choice of periodically poled nonlinear crystals proposed in Laurell's invention, i.e. KTiOPO4 (KTP), LiNbO3 (LN), and LiTaO3 (LT). These materials possess high nonlinearity and can be readily poled into periodic structures for frequency doubling. However, the practical use of these materials is very limited. Like bulk KTP, periodically poled KTP can only perform well at low power levels (a few milliwatts or possibly even tens of milliwatts in the visible) but suffers from passive and induced absorption (“gray tracking”) at higher power levels. In addition, KTP crystal production is not easily scalable to mass production quantities at low cost as is required by some applications such as consumer-electronics displays. LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 are scalable to high-volume production and can be readily periodically poled, but suffer from visible-light-induced degradation (“photo-refractive damage”) that makes it impossible to use these crystals to produce even milliwatts of visible light without severe degradation. The photo-refractive damage can be reduced at elevated temperatures (>150° C.). However, this requires using ovens for maintaining the nonlinear crystals at a high-temperature. Such ovens are incompatible with a low-cost, efficient laser fabrication, especially in a microchip geometry. Thus, the laser designs described by Laurell, cannot be implemented in a high-power, low-cost, compact, and efficient architecture. Similarly, Brown (US Published Patent Application 2005/0,063,441), proposed designs for compact laser packages, which would appear to be suitable for low-cost applications. However, the Brown teaching is still centered on conventional nonlinear materials such as KTP and LBO. The possible use of PPLN and PPKTP is mentioned but it is not taught how one can overcome the limitations of these crystals, especially their afore mentioned reliability limitations.
It is known that congruent LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 suffer from photo-refractive damage due to visible light, and several ways to overcome this problem have been proposed. The high-temperature operation, mentioned above, partially solves the problem, but is not suitable for most applications. Another proposed solution is doping the congruent material during the crystal growth to suppress photo-refractive damage mechanisms (T. Volk, N. Rubinina, M. Wöhlecke, “Optical-damage-resistant impurities in lithium niobate,” Journal of the Optical Society of America B, vol. 11, p. 1681 (1994)). Growing bulk crystals with a high degree of stoichiometry has been proposed as another method to suppress photo-refractive damage (Y. Furukawa, K. Kitamura, S. Takekawa, K. Niwa, H. Hatano, “Stoichiometric Mg:LiNbO3 as an effective material for nonlinear optics,” Optics Letters, vol. 23, p. 1892 (1998)).
However, none of the prior art workers have taught a means of achieving a high output power, stable ambient temperature operable frequency doubled laser suitable for producing green and blue light in a low-cost, mass-manufacturable design. We have found that if periodically poled LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 crystals are within 0.05% of stoichiometric they do not require any dopant to be stable at high output powers of up to 500 mW. For crystals that are within 0.6% of stoichiometric, doping with from about 0.1 to about 0.6 mole % of ZnO or MgO achieves substantially the same beneficial results as are obtained with stoichiometric, periodically poled LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 crystals. The present invention teaches a compact, efficient, and low-cost frequency-converted laser based on periodically poled materials that contain as dopants MgO or ZnO and/or have a specified degree of stoichiometry that ensures high reliability for these materials. ZnO or MgO-doped stoichiometric LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 are very different materials from their congruent counterparts and their altered ferroelectric properties make these materials exceedingly difficult to pole into the short-periods, several-micron-length domains required for frequency conversion into the visible spectral range. The technological challenges in producing periodically poled ZnO or MgO-doped and stoichiometric LiNbO3 and LiTaO3 have recently been overcome and these new materials shown to be manufacturable. Crystals with poling periods suitable for laser conversion into blue, green, and longer wavelength ranges have been produced and the technology for such production process is described in copending, commonly assigned Published US Patent Application 2005/0,133,477 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by this reference.
In short, known technical approaches cannot provide a reliable, cost-effective, and compact frequency converted laser. The present invention solves this problem and discloses a low-cost, efficient, and reliable solid-state laser architecture that is based on periodically poled LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 that contain dopants such as MgO or ZnO and/or have a specified degree of stoichiometry that ensures high reliability for these materials. The present invention also describes a compact, efficient, reliable, and low-cost solid-state laser, frequency converted into wavelength ranges, not available through direct semiconductor lasers, i.e. into the blue, green, yellow, orange, and near-ultraviolet wavelength regions, i.e., into wavelengths of about 275 nm to 635 nm. The present invention teaches a method of manufacturing compact and efficient visible or near-UV laser sources having output power levels of at least several hundreds of milliwatts and even higher, which levels are not achievable with existing technologies.